Hi Guys, Please call the City of San Diego Lakes Recreation Program, 619 668-2050, and complain about the closure of Lake Sutherland to boats on Fridays. Ask your fishing buddies to call too. I have called. However the program managers, Joe Webb and Gary Norris, are saying that since they have only received one phone call (apparently mine) they are not yet inclined to reconsider the closure.

The City of San Diego has announced Lake Sutherland will be open on Fridays this season but boats will not be permitted. The rationale for the exclusion of boats is that it would take two staff members all day to be available to inspect boats for Quagga mussels.

This is nonsense. On a typical Friday Sutherland only gets only a dozen or two boats. It only takes one person to inspect a boat. Since the lake is open to the public there is always someone around the launch ramp anyway.

If there is truly a concern that staff could be attending to other duties, rather than being available for Quagga mussel inspection, boat launching could be limited to an hour or two each day. Most of the dozen or two boats which typically use Sutherland on Fridays launch first thing in the morning, as soon as the lake opens. If the ramp were open for an hour or so in the morning, and maybe another hour in the middle of the day, most anglers could be accommodated, and the demand on City staff would me minimal.

Please call. These guys are susceptible to public pressure--but it has to be applied.

Thanks, Tony